What is Slippery Fish? A secret project to win Olympic speedskating medals with help from an app

MILWAUKEE (AP) — All it took was the mere mention of the words “Slippery Fish” for U.S. Speedskating national team coach Ryan Shimabukuro to purse his lips and shake his head.

There wasn't even a full question asked about the secret project using computer technology aimed at shaving fractions of a second off speedskating times to help the Americans bring home gold medals from the Milan Cortina Olympics. Just those four syllables were enough to catch Shimabukuro off-guard a little more than a month ahead of the Feb. 6-22 Winter Games.

“No comment. I don’t know how you even know about that,” said the genial Shimabukuro, who otherwise was forthcoming about all manner of topics during an interview with The Associated Press about his team and his sport while sitting in the stands at Milwaukee’s Pettit National Ice Center, site of the Olympic trials for long track in January.

“No comment. Nope. Nope," Shimabukuro said. "Respectfully, no comment.”

So what, exactly, is Slippery Fish? And why would Shimabukuro — and some other folks connected to the American team — be so tight-lipped about it?

According to Shane Domer, U.S. Speedskating's chief of sport performance, the idea behind the program was to increase athletes' aerodynamic efficiency by reducing the amount of drag they create pushing against the air during a race.

For years, speedskaters, like cyclists, trained in wind tunnels to study that phenomenon.

Now, Domer explained, it happens virtually: An app lets skaters scan their bodies, creating a “digital twin.” The software simulates wind passing over the avatar, computational fluid dynamics calculate how much resistance there is — and how tweaking a skater's form alters that.

“We can basically say, ‘How much faster will the avatar be in this position vs. that position at a certain speed?’ You’re trying to make someone a little bit slippery through the air,” Domer said about the work that began in 2023 at a cost approaching $100,000.

“Significant performance benefits from small changes: changing the head position slightly, changing the way your shoulders are positioned, elbow positions,” he said. “You’re talking about tenths of a second per lap in a sport where we look at hundredths or thousandths.”

U.S. long distance coach Gabe Girard said they've seen improvements from raising both arms in corners instead of only in straightaways.

“We’re always hoping to bring something a bit out of left field to catch people off-guard,” Girard said. “There’s also ‘mental warfare’ about it and makes people guess if they should (do) it.”

As with other sports, successful speedskating innovations get copied.

At Beijing in 2022, the U.S. men won their first Olympic speedskating medal since 2010, a bronze in team pursuit. That was thanks to a revolutionary change developed by the not-so-creatively-named Project Push: The team's three racers remained in the same order and pushed the leader of the trio, instead of rotating who led.

But the Americans debuted that two years earlier, and other countries soon adopted the same strategy. “We unveiled it too early,” Domer lamented.

Nearly everyone now pushes in team pursuit, but Domer said not everyone is doing it well.

“I don’t think they understand the mechanics and the math behind it,” he said. "We have made small changes to the way we’re executing it, based on what we have learned from Slippery Fish.”

Indeed, the U.S. holds the world record and Casey Dawson, Ethan Cepuran and Emery Lehman are favored for gold on Feb. 17.

Lehman said the 3-D modeling fostered better understanding of the ideal spacing between the three racers.

“We’re thinking about things analytically," Lehman said. “We definitely have some niche things that we do that we try not to share with other people.”

Slippery Fish mostly is being used for team pursuit and long-distance events like the 5,000 or 10,000 meters.

“We were going to work on a program for more of the sprint side, but I had a little too much on my plate to kind of spearhead that project,” said Erin Jackson, who defends her Olympic 500 gold Feb. 15. “Hopefully that’s something we can get more into" before the 2030 Games.

Domer said “a lot” of U.S. skaters and coaches have been shown what Slippery Fish can do. “Some have made changes," he said. "Some have not.”

The world's best speedskater at the moment, Jordan Stolz, who excels at shorter distances, hasn't taken advantage.

“It’s not something that I really got into — changing your technique to be more ‘aero,'” Stolz said. “Everybody skates so differently. If somebody is more ‘aero’ ... I don’t know if I would be changing my technique to try and match them.”

U.S. Speedskating has redesigned helmets — including one revealed at the 2022 Games — and employs technology to improve performance in other ways.

Cutting Edge is for skate blades. Iron Fist focuses on weighted gloves. New uniforms will arrive, eventually.

“It’s really hard to change someone who has been training a certain way their entire life, and then you ask them to do something that makes skating feel different. That’s a tough sell," Domer said. "But I do think we’ll see crazy new things at the next Olympic Games.”

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

U.S. speedskating national coach Ryan Shimabukuro is seen at the U.S. Olympic trials for long track speed skating at the Pettit National Ice Center, Jan. 4, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

FILE - From left to right, United States' Emery Lehman, Casey Dawson and Ethan Cepuran celebrate after their new world record in the men's team pursuit at a World Cup speedskating event, Nov. 16, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Tyler Tate, File)

U.S. speedskating national coach Ryan Shimabukuro is seen at the U.S. Olympic trials for long track speed skating at the Pettit National Ice Center, Jan. 4, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

FILE - From front to back, United States' Casey Dawson, Emery Lehman and Ethan Cepuran skate to a new world record during the men's team pursuit at a World Cup speedskating event, Nov. 16, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Tyler Tate, File)

CAIRO (AP) — Before the war, the Rafah border crossing was Gaza's only gateway to the outside world not controlled by Israel. When Israeli troops seized it in May 2024, that gateway was shuttered. It has now reopened, Egyptian and Israeli officials said Monday — but with tight restrictions.

Only a trickle of Gaza's tens of thousands of wounded and sick Palestinians will be allowed out each day, Israel says.

Still, the reopening shows that the ceasefire in the two-year war between Israel and Hamas is moving forward and provides a glimmer of hope for Palestinians seeking to leave the strip — and those wishing to return home.

Rafah's reopening will make it easier for Gazans to seek medical treatment, travel internationally or visit family in Egypt, which is home to tens of thousands of Palestinians. It could also help Gaza’s devastated economy, as Palestinian-made olive oil and other products are widely sold in Egypt and throughout the Arab world.

“We hope this will close off Israel’s pretexts and open the crossing,” said Abdel-Rahman Radwan, a Gaza City resident whose mother is a cancer patient and requires treatment outside Gaza.

Israel also has said Palestinians wanting to leave Gaza will have to get Israeli and Egyptian security approval. Egypt has been opposed to Palestinian refugees permanently resettling in that country.

With much of Gaza turned to rubble, the United Nations has said the Palestinian territory’s population of over 2 million people needs a massive influx of fuel, food, medicine and tents. While some aid has entered via the crossing, trucks have been lined up outside it for months while waiting for the chance to enter.

Before the war, the Rafah crossing bustled with goods and people. Although Gaza has four other border crossings, they are shared with Israel and only Rafah links the territory with another neighboring country.

After Hamas-led militants sparked the war by attacking southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Egypt tightened its restrictions on traffic through the Rafah crossing. Israel took control of the Gaza side in May 2024 as part of its offensive and closed the crossing except to the occasional medical evacuation.

The Gaza side of the Rafah crossing was heavily damaged during the war.

With the current ceasefire deal calling for Hamas to have no role in running Gaza, it’s unclear who will operate the territory’s side of the Rafah crossing once the war ends. Currently an EU mission is running the crossing with assistance from Palestinian workers. Israel says it is subjecting Palestinians to security checks once inside Gaza.

The crossing also will be central to Gaza's reconstruction. Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser Jared Kushner said postwar construction would first focus on building “workforce housing” in Rafah, the nearby southern city currently controlled by Israeli troops.

But Netanyahu on Monday told Israel's parliament, the Knesset: “We are at the start of the next (ceasefire) phase. What is the next phase? The next phase is disarming Hamas and demilitarizing the Gaza Strip. The next phase is not reconstruction.”

Associated Press reporters Samy Magdy in Cairo, Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

A crane enters the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing to the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)

Palestinian children receive donated food at a community kitchen in Nuseirat, in central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)